Thanks for the feedback. It was trial and error and a lot of frustration. Pastel, as you probably know, has a tendency to lift when you want to blend it. I have learned it is most important to use the more expensive pastel and also, the more expensive paper.

Well Ella, I never used pastel! I only work with oil paint.. oil painting is the ' Love of my Life' .. I'm crazy about it!

You have to try it. Pastel was the only medium I have not yes mastered so I started. Just remember, do not just give up. Try again and after all, by the time you are finished with the painting, you have learned a hell of a lot more how to handle Pastel. Good luck when you start

Who-oa! I started drawing portraits a few months ago, had never tried people before. Still have much to learn. From what I remember of my 'adventure' with pastels many years ago, it was disastrous. This is truly amazing to me and an inspiration. Brilliant work.

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Cheers, Val

”Creativity is allowing yourselves to make mistakes. Work on knowing which ones to keep!”

Kelly, Val and Susan, I appreciate your feedback and it feels good to know all my work was not in vain. Thank you all. Pastel is a difficult medium to work with if you are not familiar with it but believe me, you do not have the hassles of waiting for it to dry, you can leave it for days and get back to it and start from where you left off. As long as you remember to use the correct paper and pastel. The 'student' pastels work when you are still practicing and using normal pastel paper. Please buy the more expensive pastels and paper for your finals. Come on, grab those pastels and start practicing! You are all such good artists, you should move on until you can master all the mediums. I am glad I have new friends now and feel special to tell others I have friends all over the world!

Hi Ella, You have done amazing work on this portrait, because the three ladies have a resemblance. -What they are of the same family? Here are the strong points of your performance: - The tone of the skin is sublime because it gives a natural effect.- Shadow areas are executed superbly well, because they define the facial expressions very well and gives a beautiful depth on the lines of the neck.- The eyes are beautifully well executed, the depth of the eye under the eyebrow is very good and their eyebrows.- The lips are an excellent colour and your shading gives a natural effect. - Hair have a good hatch and variation of colors give a effect to their hairdressing. Did you used tools to Dim to make your soft pastels? Did you use your fingers to integrate your mixtures of colors? For a first painting with pastel technique, I congratulate you for this outstanding work, because you really of the talent in this technique.

Lucie, you are my hero with the best feedback ever! The three ladies are actually me, my daughter Ursula and my granddaughter Robyn. I am glad I could manage to create a resemblance. I went to Wellington, NZ for Robyn's 21st and I asked someone to take a photo before we scatter away. Yes I use a blending tool which works wonders. To grasp the technique and to understand what Pastel do on paper was a big challenge. Thank you for your comments. I have done other portraits too, check out my profile.